Optical coherence tomography is an optical imaging technique that allows for resolution of structural aspects of a sample. However, this technique can present limitations on depth penetration and depth resolution, as well as imaging speed. For example, to obtain a high depth resolution, an objective lens with a high numerical aperture is often required, which can limit the field of view. Fluorescence microscopy is an optical imaging technique that allows for the resolution of molecular aspects of the sample, and can supplement some of the limitations of optical coherence tomography. However, each technique generally has different mechanisms for depth discrimination, which are generally not compatible with each other. Constructing three-dimensional images of samples using both optical coherence tomography techniques and fluorescence microscopy techniques can be difficult and time consuming, due to the repeated scans of the sample that are needed.
Aspects of the present disclosure provide a new optical imaging system and methods that solves this problem and other problems.